A Trivial Trip Across the U.S.A. Part 1 Quiz

Answer: Maine

Point Vesuvius in Kennebunkport on the Atlantic Coast in southern Maine was bought by George Herbert Walker, who was once President of the U.S. Golf Association and for whom the Walker Cup (the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup) is named. The summer home on what has since been renamed Walkers Point has remained in the Bush family since. Walker's grandson, G.H.W. Bush, entertained both Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev there when he was President. His great-grandson, G.W. Bush, continued the tradition by hosting both Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Answer: North Carolina

Settlers first arrived in what is now Mecklenburg County in North Carolina in the 1750s. The 22-year old Prince of Wales became King George III in October 1760 on the death of his grandfather, and a few months later he married Her Serene Highness Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg.

The growing population centre on the other side of the Atlantic was named "Charlotte Town" in her honor and it was incorporated as a town in 1768. Not that the future city was a hotbed of monarchists -- it was here that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed in 1775, one of the first such declarations that eventually led to the American War of Independence.

The population of Charlotte boomed in the early part of the 19th century following the first discovery of gold in the United States. North Carolina was the country's largest producer of gold until the California Gold Rush of 1848.

The city of Charlotte, home to more than 750,000 (2010 Census), is the largest in North Carolina and carries the nickname "The Queen City" in deference to its roots.

Answer: Mississippi

Home to around 35,000 in 2012, Tupelo is the county seat of Lee County in northeastern Mississippi.

On the south side of town you can visit the Tupelo National Battlefield, where General Nathan Forrest led Confederate forces in 1864. The same force also saw action at a major battle a few miles north of the city, now commemorated at the Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site.

Elvis Presley was born here in 1935, and a year later survived a tornado that killed 230 and is ranked as the fourth-deadliest in U.S. history. Elvis returned to the city to perform at the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair and Dairy Show in 1956. The most famous home of Elvis, Graceland, is in Memphis, Tennessee, which is the northwest of Tupelo across the state line.

Tupelo is also the birthplace of Joe Horn, who had a 12-year NFL career as a wide receiver with the Saints, Chiefs and Falcons.

Answer: Indiana

America's most famous Catholic research educational establishment, the University of Notre Dame du Lac (or simply "Notre Dame" as it is usually known), is located just north of the city of South Bend, in St Joseph's County in northern Indiana. South Bend is the fourth-largest city in the state after Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Evansville.

Nicknamed the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame is a serious power in numerous sports but particularly in football. Their first Heisman Trophy winner, QB Angelo Bertelli in 1943, was drafted by the Boston Yanks with the number one pick of the draft even though he was on active duty with the marines at the time. Hall of Fame RB Paul Hornung, another number one pick (and Heisman Trophy winner in 1956), was a member of the Green Bay Packers team that won the first Superbowl (and four NFL titles in all). Tim Brown, star wide receiver for the Raiders for 15 years and only the third player in NFL history with 100 touchdown catches, became the school's seventh Heisman Trophy winner in 1987.

Answer: Minnesota

Native Americans dripped milk into water and called it 'mnisota'. The 'mni' part means water, and many Minnesota communities have names that derive from this: Minneapolis (water city), Minneota (much water) and Minnetrista (crooked water), for example.

More than 60% of the state's 5.4 million population (2010 Census) live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Area which includes nine of the state's twelve largest cities. Bloomington (home of the "Mall of America"), Brooklyn Park (best known as the location of the "Edinburgh USA Golf Course"), Plymouth and Woodbury are all effectively suburbs of Minneapolis-St Paul.

Voyageurs, established in 1971 on four main lakes, is the state's only National Park. Minnesota has numerous nicknames: "Land of 10,000 Lakes", "The North Star State", "The Gopher State" (sport teams from the University of Minnesota have the gopher as their mascot), "Land of Sky-Blue Waters" and "The Bread and Butter State". Blueberry is the official state muffin of Minnesota -- I kid you not!

Answer: Oklahoma

Located at the extreme western end of the Oklahoma panhandle, Cimarron County has borders with Colorado, Kansas, Texas and New Mexico in addition to bordering Texas County OK. A point just south of the Cimarron River is the only place in the U.S. at which you would be less than 27 miles from five different states -- you would be in Oklahoma, seven miles from Colorado, and exactly 26.99 miles from each of the other three states.

The Black Mesa is an area of tableland and steep cliffs running from Colorado south into New Mexico. It crosses Oklahoma in Cimarron County and provides the state with its highest point at an elevation of 4,973 feet.

Answer: Idaho

A series of dams and locks on the Snake and Columbia rivers enable ocean-going vessels to traverse the state of Washington entirely. The fourth and final major dam on the Snake River is the Lower Granite Dam, which opened in 1975. This created the 39-mile wide Lower Granite Lake, whose eastern shoreline extends into the state of Idaho and to the port of Lewiston. A fish ladder at the Lower Granite Dam assists adult sockeye salmon and steelheads (rainbow trout) to migrate far up the river to spawn.

The city of Lewiston itself dates back to 1861, founded at the height of the gold rush. Two years later, it became the first capital of Idaho Territory. A year later, the capital was moved south to Boise, which has remained the Idaho state capital. Lewiston remains the largest city (after Coeur d'Alene) in northern Idaho.

Answer: New Mexico

There are a handful of states that have yellow on their flags, but there can be little dispute that the New Mexico flag is the only one you could describe as 'yellow'. (New Jersey has a buff background to its flag.) The design of the New Mexico flag is a plain yellow background with a centrally located red symbolic Sun.

Of the alternatives, the flag of Alabama is a red saltire on a white background. The state of Washington has the only green flag -- a green background with a portrait of the country's first President in a centrally-located circle. The Alaskan flag consists of a plain dark blue background with the constellation Ursa Major (aka "The Big Dipper", "The Plough" or "The Saptarishi") in the bottom left quadrant and a single star in the top right corner.

Answer: North Dakota

With an area of 105 square miles (slightly larger than the Cayman Islands), the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is spread across three sites in the Badlands of North Dakota. (The Badlands National Park itself is in South Dakota, but is an extension of the same geological area.) Roosevelt's historic Maltese Cross Cabin, which he used before he became President, can be seen at the park's Visitor Centre. Bison, Bighorn Sheep and wild horses are plentiful throughout the park. Of the alternatives, neither Illinois nor New York has a single National Park.

The Cuyahoga Valley N.P. became Ohio's first when it was established in 2000.

Answer: West Virginia

With an area of 24,230 square miles (slightly smaller than the island of Sri Lanka), West Virginia is the 41st largest state. Its capital, Charleston, had a population of 51,400 at the 2010 Census, making it just the state's largest city. The other population centers with more than 20,000 residents are Huntington, Parkersburg, Morgantown and Wheeling. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer.

Other famous people who were born in West Virginia include the college football coach Lou Holtz, NFL star Randy Moss, Confederate general Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, aviation legend Chuck Yeager and former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.